“Still fabulous!” That was one of the compliments overheard as fans filed out of the Hollywood Bowl following Patti LaBelle’s 8065 Tour kickoff on Sunday evening (July 7).
The numbers refer to LaBelle’s double celebration this year: her 80th birthday in May and 65-year career in entertainment. Those 65 years represent a pioneering, Grammy-winning music career that began in the early ‘60s as frontwoman for Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles, which evolved into the innovative trio LaBelle in the ‘70s with Nona Hendryx and the late Sarah Dash before LaBelle embarked on a solo career.
After opening her set with the emotion-packed “You Saved My Life,” LaBelle was definitely in her element as she kicked off her shoes not once but twice, cracked jokes (“Don’t get it twisted, I want my shoe back,” she told an audience member who’d caught one of them), busted a couple of dance moves with her singers and even did some of her trademark wing flexing. She also dedicated her own moving take on “If You Asked Me To” to Celine Dion (who covered the song after LaBelle in 1992).
LaBelle’s soaring vocals especially took center stage on the ballad “If Only You Knew” (a surprise as it wasn’t on the set list provided by the Bowl) — eliciting a standing ovation — and on show closer “Lady Marmalade.” For the latter, she chose several males from the audience to join her onstage and try their hand at singing the hit themselves, which met with audience cheers and laughter. Her nearly 90-minute performance also included classics such as “Love, Need and Want You,” “On My Own” (her duet with Michael McDonald) and “You Are My Friend.”
Upcoming stops on LaBelle’s…
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